Fiction Novel Food Chain

Okay.  Something has really been chapping my hide lately.  Really been a burr under my saddle.  Really, really just...pissing me off, for lack of a better term.  So I've decided to make a hierarchical list of some of the more popular fiction novel sub-genres.  Maybe not for the general reading public and more for myself, but still something that needs to be sorted and dealt with.  The categories comprised are not necessarily put in order of profitability or popularity as the top four could most likely be interchanged with one another.

This list will be a sort of literary food chain, starting with what I believe to be the purest, most credible kind of fiction writing, and finally spiraling down to the lowest, cheapest form of fiction.  I have given book or author examples for some categories, but the latter categories are pretty much self-explanatory as you will see.  As a disclaimer, I just want to make it clear that although these are my opinions concerning what makes good fiction and poor fiction, they are still 100% accurate and correct and cannot be disputed.

THE CHART

JUVENILE FICTION (a la Harry Potter, etc)
MYSTERY/ THRILLER (Koontz, Grisham, etc)
CONTEMPORARY FICTION (Patterson, King, etc)
HISTORICAL FICTION
SCIENCE FICTION
ROMANCE (Steel, etc)
FANTASY
HORROR
LITERARY FICTION
CHIC-LIT
COMIC BOOKS
ANIMAL/ PET FICTION
SINGLE CELL ORGANISM FICTION
EROTICA

And there you have it.  It looks like another victory for both JUVENILE FICTION and EROTICA.  It always perplexes me; how did EROTICA ever get its name?  Do people actually find smut in book form erotic?  Really?  It's more like porn on paper.  There is a reason why the porn industry is a multibillion-dollar business, and there is a reason why people buy EROTICA: sex sells.  Always has, always will.  Not because anything has been well written or well produced.

Congrats, all you EROTICA "writers" floating around out there; you must be extremely proud of yourselves.  Selling out for the easy buck.  I guess I shouldn’t be surprised—there are gravy-trainers in every industry.  I see that now.

Keep writing your "stories" and I suppose people will continue to purchase them.  Just know that it ain't your writing style or painstakingly crafted character development and storyline that are drawing them to your novel.  With that knowledge, how could you possibly continue to churn out such played, unimaginative, and uninspired drivel?

Oh, right.  Money talks.  To bad integrity doesn't talk.  Integrity really should make a concerted effort to talk much more regularly in society.  But that's for another blog.

Dear Mr. Publisher

Old Guys Teetering at the Top of the Heap
Random House, Hachette, Macmillan, Penguin, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster
Legacy Publishing Division
Broadway & 56th Street; 237 Park Avenue; 175 Fifth Avenue; 1230 Avenue Rockefeller Center; 375 Hudson Street; 10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY

June 20th, 2012

Dear Old Guys,

It’s been with mixed feelings that I’ve read all the articles about the Department of Justice’s investigation and all the letters written to Mr. John R. Read regarding the antitrust/ collusion suit against Apple and the Big 6 publishers.  Everyone is writing to the DOJ, but no one has even thought to write a letter to the publishing houses, the ones who’ve been in charge for so long.  So here is my letter to you neglected publishers—an olive branch extended from my lowly hand to yours.  

I’ve always been a polite, conscientious kind of guy, and right now, for anyone who’s reading this, I’d like to send out a genuine challenge to any of the Big 6 publishing houses to do away with tradition, and take a chance on me, an up-and-coming indie-author.  There’s not a doubt in my mind that, at some point in my life, my stories will be read and enjoyed by thousands—hopefully millions—of fiction lovers and avid readers.

You don’t know me, so I’m putting myself out there for you to see.  This is your chance to be a part of something big; to be a part of something unique.  This is your chance to make amends with the self-publishing world, extend a hand, and bury the Hachette, er, hatchet.  We aren’t old and tired and played.  I’m an indie-author, not because I can’t hack it and my stories are junk, but because I believe in the paradigm shift that’s taking place in the literary world.  We are the future of books and storytelling, and of how those great stories are distributed for all to read. 

I want to give you the chance to be a part of it all.  I want us to be partners.  I want to give you the opportunity to represent me and for me to use your reach and influence to get my stories out to a much larger reading audience.  Do you want this chance?  My stories will be great, and are very commercial.

The beauty of this offer is that you won’t have to make all those difficult decisions associated with publishing.  I’ll handle all that stuff.  You can certainly give me suggestions and some helpful tips from your vast bank of knowledge in the publishing business, and I’ll certainly entertain any valid and useful ideas.  But I make the final calls.  I keep the control.  After all, I know what’s best for my baby, and how to put forth the proper image and feel for my book.  I should—I’ve only spent several months or years writing the damn thing…

Of course there are a few stipulations, caveats, to my offer.

To show you how nice a guy I am, I won’t even demand an advance on any of my books.  The catch is I want to be paid quicker.  Much quicker.  I’m talking monthly.  There will be no excuses to withhold payment since my book sales will be virtually traceable in real time.  Everything will be digital, books included.  Everything will be transparent.  Everything will be clear.  Once more:  get paid quicker.

Next, I’d like to get paid more.  I don’t think that’s asking too much, is it?  After all, I am the creative genius behind the stories.  Not to sound too blunt, but in what way did you contribute to the development of my story?  Anyone?  So why would I get paid less than you as found within your legacy publishing model?  For our new partnership, let’s start somewhere in the middle, more so for short stories or smaller non-fiction type ebooks.  Say, a 50/ 50 split.  I’ll accept that.  But for larger works of fiction, I’ve got to bump my royalties up a tad.  Maybe not to 70%, but at least to 60-65% of the royalties.  Sound good?

I guess that kind of moves us into a sub category:  pricing.  I’ll set the prices for my books.  Since they’ll be in ebook form and since there will be no cost incurred for storage, or distribution, or printing—you know, all that 20th century stuff—there will be no point in ever selling my books for more than $5.99.  At first glance it may not look like you’ll be making as much on a $5.99 book as you might have employing the legacy publishing model (and you’d be right), but I’ll be making a whole heck of a lot more.  And that’s a good thing, because I wrote the book.  But don’t fret, because it’ll all balance itself out by the sheer volume and swiftness of the e-publishing model we’ll be using.  Read on.

This next stipulation is probably the most critical of all my conditions:  100% retention of all rights associated with my stories.  Why should you care about this one?  It shouldn’t matter to you whether you have the rights, or whether I retain the rights.  You’ll be associated with my ebooks for an eternity.  You’ll be getting paid for as long as you’re in business.  THAT’S THE BEAUTY OF DIGITAL!  Everything is forever, and all that shelf space is unlimited.  And since I was the creative force behind the entire product, save maybe a few minor details suggested by you and potentially employed by me into the ebook, it’s only logical that I keep all of my rights.  Doesn’t that make sense?  This is a biggie for me.  This is a deal-breaker.

You’ll notice in my letter that all my conditions benefit both you and me.  That’s what a partnership is: mutually beneficial.  We all know that if I were to take your route for getting my books published, it would take fooooooorever.  The nice thing with e-publishing is that we can get my stuff out very, very fast. The quicker we get the products out, the quicker people can buy them.  The quicker we get product out, the more we’ll get out sooner.  The more we have for sale, the more money we make.  See how that works? 

Don’t hold my ebooks hostage to the paper version.  If someone really, really wants to buy yet another paperback to cram onto their already packed bookshelf rather than the digital version, she’ll do it regardless of the price (I think...)  Get them both out at the same time and let her make the choice; don’t force-feed the reader what you think they should buy.  Of course the paper version would need to be priced much higher than the ebook version in order to cover all the extra costs associated with producing them and storing them and distributing them, but that problem is easily solved in the following paragraph.

Don’t worry, old friends.   I know it might be a really difficult transition for you to abandon paper, the lifeblood, your primary resource that you’ve so loyally—some might say stubbornly—clung to for so long, and switch to a strictly digital format.  But I’d be doing you a huge favor!  No more paying for storage facilities to house the hundreds of thousands of books that don’t sell or have been returned (just to be clear: I’m in no way insinuating that my books won’t sell.) 

What a bonus!  The digital bookshelf is infinite, so we’ll be able to store as many titles as we want for as long as we’d like.  HURRAY!  You can relax.  But I am also sympathetic to the one or two people who absolutely must hold a 300 page novel in their hands.  No problem.  There’s the print on demand system, whereby we only print off the exact amount of paper books that have been requested/ ordered.  Sounds too good to be true?  Sounds too logical?  Sounds too forward thinking?  Sounds like common sense to me, and to the thousands who already use it.  Again, you’d not only be doing yourselves a favor, you’d be doing Mother Earth a big favor as well.  We all know that chicks dig an environmentally conscious guy (I’m sure men have their own environmental turn-ons, too.)

In conclusion, I hope that I haven’t sounded too arrogant or like too much of a primadonna for your liking, but I really want you to stay around and help us indie-authors out as much as you can.  We’re worried that you’ll fade away into the recycling bin of the publishing industry before we’re able to take full advantage of your branding power.  This will be a collaborative effort where both parties will need to accept the other’s role in the whole publishing process.  I’ll accept your status symbol and name cache, and you’ll respect my royalty and rights and creative control conditions.

So, to recap:  If we’re going to be partners, I want to get paid quicker (who doesn’t?), get paid more (only makes sense), set the price low to bring in more sales (duh), retain 100% of all my rights (no-brainer), and have a much faster turnaround when getting my ebooks out into the reading world (you’re welcome, dear readers.)  These are not unreasonable demands.  We’ll both be getting paid faster, more regularly, and for a longer period of time.  Readers will be able to read more material faster and for a lower price, too.  And that’s a good thing, because if we aren’t conscious of the reader and what she wants, then why are we in the publishing business at all?  It all seems so simple. 

So, what do you say?  Do we have a deal?

J. P. Kurzitza
Indie Author

The Indie-Author's 12 Days of Digital Christmas Song

(Remember, don't read it, sing it to the tune!)

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me:
an eReader with built-in Wi-Fi.

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me:
2 blog reviews.

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me:
3 guest posts.

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me:
4 Facebook Likes.

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me:
5 top ten Google search resuuuuuuuults.

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me:
6 eBook formats.

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me:
7 new comments.

On the eighth day of Christmas my true love gave to me:
8 @Mentions.

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me:
9 genre choices.

On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me:
10 ads that work.

On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me:
11 websites linked to.

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me:
12-thousand eBook sales.

Staying home with my darlings

I love my children – I have four of them.  I’ve been a stay-home dad for the last 6 years.  At one point or another I’ve stayed home with at least one of them and at the most, three at once.  Things have calmed down somewhat, now that my three boys are all in school, but with the arrival of my sweet little princess last October, I’ve got another four years to go until it’s her turn to start school (sniff).

But as each of my children grew and eventually started school, it seemed that another darling would enter my home.  You see, a funny thing happened when my wife and I decided that I should stay home with our kids:  my brain woke from a twenty year coma.  No, no, I’m 100% healthy.  It’s just that I haven’t been – how should I phrase this – the most ambitious amongst us humans during my adult life.

But in the latter part of 2007, one year into my newly acquired role as Mr. Mom and with a sudden influx of personal reflective time, I discovered a hidden passion that had previously laid dormant for most of my life – the writer within.  And although a piece of me left whenever one of the kids left to start school for the first time, I slowly became acquainted with my new children – my darlings that came to life in my head each time I turned on my laptop and began typing.

When you’re a parent, you discover things about yourself that you may not have known before, or may not have needed to use until those precious little sweethearts started to fill your home.  But when you become a stay-home parent, and the realization that your children’s lives depend entirely on you every minute of the day, it’s almost like a slap in the face – a rude awakening.  And if you aren’t committed 100%, then your children suffer.

I’ve noticed this on a much smaller scale with the characters I’ve developed within my books.  If I, as an author, am not on my game and mentally committed, then my characters suffer and ultimately the entire story suffers.  I guess you could say that being a stay-home parent has helped me refine my skills as an author when it comes to nurturing my characters through the writing process, and giving them what they require to flourish.

But the sad inevitability that happened when my children eventually left for school also happened when I had to “let go” of my first novel and release my surrogate darlings into the cruel, unforgiving world.  Stay-home dad or writer, I guess I’m doomed no matter what.

So, although my fathering skills in everyday life have now been tweaked to accommodate the needs of a toddler who now wears pink (yikes!), it’s been a true pleasure to breathe life and hope and aspirations and accomplishments into each and every character I’ve written about.  I’ve grown and seen my darlings-in-prose grow along with me during my authoring journey, and sometimes I can’t help but feel protective of them.

My only wish is this:  just as parenthood has taught me how to develop and become a better writer, I can only hope that by being a writer, perhaps I’ll learn to more easily let go and release my own kids into that same cold, cruel world when those inevitable times come knocking upon our door.  Until then (sniff, sniff), I’m going to keep writing my books, keep raising my kids, and keep fathering more darlings into the wonderful world of fiction.  

I just wanna read!

What's the purpose of reading a novel - a fiction novel, more specifically?  Entertainment, enjoyment, and sometimes fulfillment, would be things I look for in a well written fiction book.  I don't want to read something that requires a Ph.D to figure out what's been going on for the past forty pages.

I personally believe that brainy, overly wordy (pretentious) books should be left to the non-fiction genre, or reference section dealing with subjects like philosophy, the universe, and how to understand women.  But if we're talking strictly fiction books, whether fantasy, adventure, horror, why try to be all literary when writing one?  Everyone knows that commercial literature sells, just look at the movies.  Harry Potter, anyone?

Well, maybe it is just me - and my average I.Q. - that can't handle trying to follow the direction of the prose on the pages while looking up every fourth word in the dictionary at the same time.  Call me crazy, but I feel no satisfaction or pride in finishing an overly complicated and unnecessarily verbose piece of literature - I feel relief.  When I do feel satisfaction, it's after spending my valuable time reading a novel that compels me to keep reading, and keeps me wanting more until the bitter sweet end.

That's how all fiction novels should be, no?

Gotta getaway?

Everyone has their dream vacation.  Here's mine:

A small, isolated tropical island.  I'm alone.  There is an unlimited supply of fresh drinking water flowing from a nearby brook.  There's more than enough bananas to go 'round.  White sand.  Yellow sun.  Cool breeze.  My laptop.  My stories.  No internet.  No cell phone.  A one way ticket back home to my family when I'm done.

Facelifts

Everything needs a facelift now and again.  A manuscript, a house, a website (ahem), somebody's face.  That's just life; that's just what happens when things get old and worn out, or outdated.

The trouble with facelifts is that there's always extra effort involved.  Either by the writer, or the contractor, or the writer/ web-designer/ stay-home-dad, or the surgeon.  Energy needs to be expended in order for said things to change.  They're not going to magically transform without that extra effort.

So the question becomes: is it worth it?  Maybe, if you've been rejected countless times by numerous publishing houses, or water is starting seep in from the roof, or your website looks like something a grade 7er could build, or you're middle-aged and have more wrinkles than a catchers glove.

But who says you have to change?  Who says you'll be "better" after the change?  Who cares?  Don't change - it's too hard, and probably more effort than actually required.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained...  You'll never know, I guess. 

Getting unstuck

Okay.  Last post I talked about how to start the ball rolling when it came to getting from idea to actual prose.  This next post will deal with the Now what.

So you've written out your thesis sentence and expanded it into a couple interesting pages.  What's next?  You're not sure what to do, or where to take it.  Don't feel discouraged, this is normal, especially for the novice writer.

You just need a plan.

I personally don't buy the notion that some writers don't plan anything and just let fly at the keyboard.  While, in some instances this may infact occur, it doesn't lend itself to smooth editing and revising.  So how does one plan their novel?  The strategy I employ is being shared under the assumption that you're writing a fiction novel.

Again, I'm going to assume that you've established all of your characters and have developed each respective character arc.  Now it's time for the story itself, because as the old adage goes, It's all about the story!

I'm somewhat of a closet movie-nut.  And after I developed my story ideas, I came up with the plan to utilize a "story template" to implement before I began writing.  Sort of like a game plan before the game.  I know for me, it's super important that I know where it is I'm at while I write, or else I tend to get lost, or begin to contradict myself.

Then it hit me that my favorite movie had such a perfectly developed story arc and plot-line, that I employed its model, and replaced all the characters and motives and conflicts with those of my own.  The result was a much smoother and more accurate writing process. 

So don't ever be afraid to plan, or think that planning is passe, or that it means you're an amateur.  It doesn't.  It simply means that you're serious about writing a clear and flowing story that your readers will enjoy, and you'll end up saving time by having a focused blueprint at your disposal.

Until next time, write on!

It Always Starts Small

A fetus.  A mustard see.  A brick.  A step.  A word.

At first, everything has a modest beginning until ultimately growing into something complex and unique.  The same can be said with a story, or more specifically a novel.  If a new writer tries to write a book only thinking of it in its entirety, then the task suddenly becomes overwhelming.  But take it one sentence at a time, and it starts from a more manageable bit-sized form.

The majority of people wanting to write a book often remark, but I just don't have any good ideas.  I think that's because they're thinking of the whole novel - the entire, complex being that is the book.  Anyone can write a novel if they make the time, but more importantly, if they narrow down an idea into one sentence.

I have come to love using a thesis sentence when devising my stories.  The rule of thumb is to keep it down between 15-20 words.  The thesis sentence should encompass the main theme constant throughout the story.  A good example to show is a blurb from the movie MEMENTO.  This is a great example of a thesis sentence:  A man, suffering from short-term memory loss, uses notes and tattoos to hunt for the man he thinks killed his wife.

Yes, the above sentence was written after the movie, but it's a great example of how a story can be formed.  I'm sure the writer of the movie had an idea, started simple, and then expanded.  The same can be done for anyone.  Think of something, anything, something that you might find intriguing or fun to write about, then write a short sentence summing it all up.  After that, expand the sentence to a paragraph.  Then expand that paragraph to a page.  Then that page to a chapter.  Then that chapter to a novel.

See, it's that easy.  Lol!  But seriously, if you are serious about writing a novel, don't worry about the finished product until you've narrowed down the basic premise of your story.  Things will start to flow from there.

Write. Publish. Repeat.

It's June, and that means that I'm this close to epublishing my first book.  I can't wait!  And it couldn't come any sooner.

The things you have to deal with when you're a budding writer, one of them being your brain hurts a lot and for an extended period of time (the last 3 years).  Now all it wants to do is move on to my next book which I've been planning as I've been putting an end to my first one.

It's kind of a neat feeling, actually.  My brain, knowing that I'm not in the creation mode of my first book anymore, has switched gears and begun to work out the details for my next book.  It's like two parts of my brain are working simultaneously.  One part is revising and editing, while the other is planning character arcs and plot lines for the next book.

I'm never at a loss for things to do nowadays which is such a blessing for me.  I used to struggle to fill the void of time, but now writing has come to the rescue and I've never been busier or happier.  :D

Just watering my blog

Are you like me and find that blogging and Facebooking and Tweeting have become more time consuming than actually connecting in person with our friends?  Maybe it's just me, but how do these people do it?  Do they have families?  Do they have jobs?  Do they have lives??

I thought the advent of social networking was supposed to make everything easier, save time - you know, speed things up a bit.  But what we're seeing is the opposite, I think.  Now we don't have enough time to maintain all of our cyber pages that are floating around.  It's becoming more of a chore than a fun activity.

The reality is that my social networking yard is becoming like my actual yard.  If I neglect it and forget to cut it or water it or fertilize it, then it gets overgrown, becomes overrun with dandelions, and forces neighbors to move away from me.

If I want blog-neighbors, than I need to maintain my blog.  I need to be consistent with my posts and make sure that they're neatly written and appealing, then, maybe I'll attract more people to come over for a visit.

But that will have to wait for now.  I've got to go water my lawn.

It's go time

Wow.  I've just finished writing my book and now the fun part begins.  That's right, you heard me--the fun part.  It's time for every writer's favorite 8 letter word that sounds like a 4 letter word to them:  Revision.

I'm actually looking forward to dissecting and editing my book.  It'll be the first chance to read the whole thing in its entirety--exciting!  I just hope that it flows smoothly and keeps building the way I planned.  I know that I'm already partial to the story, so I shouldn't have any troubles reading it.  My concern is maintaining that same effect for the would-be reader when they go through it for the first time.

Well, I'm off to proof read.  See you in the spring sometime.


Out.

My first book

Losing an arm in a freak accident is hard to deal with.  But when you've been touted as the next young Olympic hopeful for the last five years, it's devastating.  Not only did the accident take away Jason Dee's identity, it took away much more: his Dad.  But when he finds a cryptic letter written by his late Great-grandfather apologizing for the very incident that shattered his life, Jason's world turns from tragic to incredible.

Trying to drag out the last summer break before his first year of High School, Jason continues to struggle with depression while trying to adjust to life as an amputee.  But when he delves deeper into the meaning of the letter--and ultimately the meaning of his name--he unravels a hidden destiny unwittingly inherited from his Great-grandfather that is unchangeable and undeniably real.

Supposedly a member of a secret fraternity along with five other boys he's never met, Jason must somehow seek them out one by one in time to save all of civilization from a lurking evil.  But does he believe enough in himself?  Does he have the fortitude to be a leader, or will he keep on the path of least resistance?

Nil Magnum Nisi Bonum

No rest for the dedicated

It's the home stretch, now.  Can I persevere?  Can I hold course, and keep the boat steady?  I hope so, because I really don't want to write all summer long if I can avoid it.  Revising - that's fine, but creating and molding?  No, I'd rather not "work" for two months straight if I can help it.

But here's the rub.  The whole point of being dedicated and persevering, is to do so even when you'd rather be, say, sleeping in, or cutting the grass, or sitting in the lawn chair drinking a Fuzzy Navel.


No matter what you want to succeed in, be it sports, or academics, or music, or writing, there comes a time when one needs to ask oneself "am I really willing to put in the 10,000 hours to be great?"

Yes.  (Hopefully)
 

Conspiracy Against Aspiring Authors

I've figured it out!  There is a definite plot out there in Proseland to quell the up and coming writer.  It's undeniable.  It's sneaky.  It's surprisingly subtle.  It's ridiculous and confounding.  

I have been seriously writing for the last three years, and over that span I have searched out strategies and techniques for writing well.  Through countless numbers of author interviews, blogs, and websites, there have been infinite tips given out to those who aspire, from those who have acquired.

But it was only recently that I found a disturbing trend inherent to the advice shared by said authors.  The #1 best piece of advice given to us aspiring writers was, is, and always will be:  READ...

Read?


But, how am I supposed to write while I read?  So, to be able to write and complete manuscripts, I need to read more?  But, if I stop reading in order to continue writing, my writing will suffer, thus requiring me to read some more, thus cutting back on my writing, thus...

Sounds like a 'chicken or egg' tip to me.

You see, after having read sooo many articles and-  Oh no.  It can't be.  They got to me.  I don't know how, but they got to me.  All those magazine articles... all those blogs... all those books on how to write...  THEY GOT ME READING!  All that time.  All those wasted hours.  I could have finished my first manuscript by now!  CURSE YOU SUCCESSFUL AUTHORS!

Sorry, but I've got to stop writing now so I can go and write.

To write, or not to write

I love to write stories.  Generally, I think that most authors or would be authors like writing.  But, c'mon, there are those stretches when even the most seasoned writer can't stand looking at their laptop screen for one more minute.  Sometimes you're so utterly and totally exhausted from either the kids, or the job, or whatever, that the thought of any kind of creativity springing forth from your cranium feels more like an alien pod finally hatching through your sternum.  

But this is the job, right?  This is what separates the chaff from the wheat - where the cream rises to the top, and all those other cliches.  Any hack-wanna be-no name-loser can write when things are great and there's a seemingly endless spring of ideas flowing from within.  It's the real troopers, the ones that get down and dirty in the wee hours of the night, the ones that steal a few minutes here and there, getting their ideas down before they disappear like a silent assassin, that are the great ones.  

So tough it through, dear would be writer.  Don't give in to procrastination and temptation.  Don't talk about writing, don't think about writing, don't fear writing, just do it

The fakes and the hacks and the wanna be and the posers all talk about writing.  Real writers just write.

Oops...

Oh yeah, I forgot I still had this thing.  

Well, it's been almost a year since my last post.  Now, if I can just follow my Life Quote, I see no reason why I can't post once a week.

Hello?  HELLO?  Anybody?  Is this mic on?  Hello?

...

Happy Easter.

KUDOS!

Before this week is out, I would be remiss if I neglected to mention my fellow blogger - and now author - Katie Alender. This being the launch week of her debut novel - BAD GIRLS DON'T DIE, I can only imagine the emotions she's going through. Please check out her website and her new book - they're both great.

Speaking of emotions, I've been feeling one a little more than usual these last few days; Envy. I think it's an emotion that many of us feel, but don't want to admit. It's one of those "dirty" emotions, lumped in with the likes of Lust and Sloth. But I think it's one that most of us feel quite often, and pretend we don't.

I personally don't find much wrong with feeling a little Envy, as long as that energy can be channeled towards something useful and productive. But one must be careful to not let Envy turn into its evil twin Jealousy. That's when things can start to turn ugly.

So, am I envious of Katie for publishing her first novel - of course, but only because I can appreciate the amount of effort and dedication it takes to write 100,000+ words that inspire and excite. I've only been doing this for a year and a half, but already understand what she went through during that point when her story was in the embryonic stages. Anybody can get to my point, but it's the rare few that can get to her point.

So kudos to you, Katie, and all the best! You've been able to do what millions of us are trying to do, and what billions have tried to do but gave up too soon.

Out.

IT'S OFFICIAL!

Thank you, thank you... no, please... thank you very much... okay... thanks a lot, really, I really appreciate it... yep... thank you.

Yes... yes it is true. I have recently received my first rejection letter from a literary agency. No... please... well, okay... yes, thank you... I know... I know, this really is very special for me too... yes... now... now please, folks, if you could just... thank you... yes, thanks again.

You know, I just feel all warm and fuzzy inside, really. It's almost like a right of passage into the literary world. I think it's because I was expecting it after everything I've read over the last year or so. It's really quite common place getting that rejection letter as apposed to the 'good' letter. I'm just glad it only took 24 hours to get. You gotta love email queries folks. Sure beats waiting 8 weeks, which I'm sure will be coming soon.

Again, thanks for the support, and here's to that elusive acceptance letter; the White Whale of every aspiring writer.

Out.